June 27, 2012

High School Of The Dead Ep12

Okay. Here we go. The final episode of High School of the Dead's first, and to date only,
season. For those reading along at home, this takes us up through Book
4 of the manga. Six have been released here in the US, the seventh
comes out in a month or so, and then that's it. There ain't no more,
and the two Satos (Daisuke and Shouji, not related) involved in the
creation of the series have sort of... well... gotten tired of it, I
suppose. In any case, there is (barely) enough source material to
generate a full Season 2, so we can always hope. But that, my true and
dear readers, is in the future. We, on the other hand, are here in the
now, and we've gots ourselves the first season to finish up. If you
remember correctly, at the end of Ep11 all was chaos as nuclear missiles were flyin', Bug-Haired Rei actually
stopped whining and acted kinda heroic, and the ORGYBUS had been
expelled from Lothlorien... and if ever there was a sentence fragment I
never expected to write, that was it right there. Sounds like really
bad Lord of the Rings-Partridge Family crossover slashfic. As opposed to all that really good LotR-Partridge Family crossover slashfic you can find. Do not go looking, I don't want to know. Seriously. Not interested. Don't. Just... don't.
I've never been more relieved by the sight of a nuclear missile. Oh
sure, it's a harbinger of the end of the world, but on the other hand, I
won't have to deal with the thought of Galadriel and Reuben Kinkade
doing... things. In more
pleasant thoughts, there are four missiles in the air, the last
reflexive spasm of a Chinese leadership turned into a merrily glowing
parking lot. We later see that they're DF-21s, which have a relatively
short range; they don't even cover all of Russia, and they surely can't
reach Europe... but they can hit anywhere in Japan you'd like. Say
goodbye to Akihabara! No more iDOLM@STER games. Hello Kitty? Melted
by a heat higher than that of the sun. Sayonara, Hatsune Miku...
...that is, if there weren't ships of both the JMSDF and the US Navy patrolling off the coast of Japan. The USS Shiloh (CG-67), a Ticonderoga-class cruiser; the Kongo and Kirishima (DDG-173 and -174), both members of the Kongo-class of destroyers based on the US Navy's aegis destroyers, and finally the USS Curtis Wilbur,
DDG-54. All four ships have Ballistic Missile Defense capabilities due
to the combination of the Aegis radar system and the RIM-161 SM-3
missile. As you would expect, the ships go into automatic mode and
engage the incoming Dong Feng-21s. There is much rejoicing as one by
one, the nukes are taken down by the defenders... all but one, Curtis Wilbur's target, and she hasn't fired yet.
It appears that the crew started reading the Meriadoc/Laurie Partridge
story. They dabbled in a realm men dare not go. God help us all if
someone finds a Danny Partridge/Eowyn slashfic... mere military might
will not be enough to defend us from that monstrosity. Oh, or the crew
has been zombified, one of the two. As the crew of the International
Space Station watches on in horror, the remaining DF-21arcs over and
reaches its target.
Lothlorien, the Fellowship, ORGYBUS, Humvee-kun, Zeke... all of them
gone in a single blinding flash, followed by a fireball the likes of
which have only rarely been seen upon this planet, and a sad tune by the Ink Spots. Just like that, in a blink of an eye.
Thanks for reading.

In any case, there is (barely) enough source material to
generate a full Season 2, so we can always hope.

Actually, I started heard a rumor that season 2 diverges from the manga, and instead the fellowship commandeers a boat and makes their way to an island that is surprisingly zombie-free. Apparently the island owes their good-luck to a particular female dealer at the local casino...

Posted by: Siergen at June 28, 2012 09:13 PM (PuIGa)

4
(I meant to send this earlier, but my computer kept crashing. It's been updated with information about a possible second season.)

On the TVTropes WMG page, there's a rumor of a rift between Daisuke Satou who wants more horror and psychology, and Shouji Satou and the publishers who want more action and fanservice. This might be true. The last two arcs have less fanservice with the main chars
(We see Rika in her sports bra while Asami never takes her uniform jacket off, and Rei's hot mom is more covered up than Saya's hot mom for example) while Shouji S. is drawing more zombie panty shots in the background.

For those who want more Shouji S. art, he's been doing his own series, Triage X (a team of medical vigilantes), with volume 1 scheduled to be published in English in October. He's done a full color version of the first four chapters, which has been translated into a hardcover compilation. This August in Japan, he's published an artbook, Lightning Pop, with new HSotD (half the book) and Triage X artwork.

UPDATE: Or maybe not. Daisuke Sato released a light novel called "Highschool Of The Dead: Owari No Hi" in Japan. Scans of the Dead has this report from Shouji Sato's Q&A at the AnimagiC 2012 anime convention in Bonn Germany July 28-29. "As we expected, Shouji was asked about when the manga would return from hiatus. He answered that he is busy right now working on Triage X and doing research for future Highschool of the Dead chapters. This research involves studying weapons, vehicles, and other things so he can draw with the high level of technical detail for which he is known. He asks that fans be patient and give him time to bring us the same high quality we have come to expect.

This answer seems to put the long delay on him rather than Daisuke Sato. To me, it sounds like maybe Fujimi Shobo wanted Triage X to be monthly to boost its popularity, they chose to put HOTD on hiatus because it would be too much work for Shouji, and now he is doing the preliminary work for chapters Daisuke already has planned out so it will be less work when HOTD returns and Triage X doesn't then have to go on hiatus itself. That's just speculation, though it does sound more plausible than other theories I've had in the past. In any case, things are looking very hopeful now that we know work is being done on the series."

That's definitely not Asami (hairstyle and color is wrong), but it is her supervisor. Here's a color picture of Asami from a series Shouji S. did comparing Triage X and HSotD heroines. There's a pre-apocalypse omake in vol. 5 showing Asami's sempai dressing her down.
Asami is written almost as the anti-Rika. She does little fanservice, isn't an action girl, is initially an indecisive leader (although she gets better), and, tragically, is a bad marksman.

Compared with other zombie works, there may be fanservice, but the chars in HSotD aren't idiots. The bath scene may have been gratuitous, but they'd checked to make sure they were safe, unlike the fish fry in The Walking Dead. I'm really glad that Alice doesn't constantly wander off. In contrast to World War Z, HSotD shows that military airpower and firepower are devastating to zombies, and professional soldiers don't panic.

That's an unusual problem the series has with continuing, at least with the Fellowship: too much competence. The JSDF are competent in fighting zombies, and, as the manga shows, running an evacuation camp. Rika (if she ever meets up with the group) and
Rei's mother would be the best choice to become leader. It took an ill-timed EMP to remove the Takagi estate as a safe haven. The only way I can think for the "High School" group to remain on their own is if they're left behind during the evacuation.

Something I've been wondering: How would a greek style phalanx using improvised spears and shields work against zombies?

June 19, 2012

High School Of The Dead Ep11

All right, so Ep10 wasn't the most sterling example of the wonderment that can be High School of the Dead.
I'll grant you that, but it was important for all that
"characterization" stuff the kids talk about these days. I'll tell ya,
back in my day we didn't cotton to newfangled concepts like that, no
sir. We'd gotten along perfectly well for hundreds of years without
fancy-schmancy character advancement or engrossing plots or witty
repartee. We had fanservice and episode-long powerup sequences, and
that was all right with us. But now! Now, you can't have a show
without half the cast becoming fully actualized people along the way.
Sheer folly! That's why I appreciate shows like HSotD; it's a throwback to the days where we were lucky to have any anime at all. Just with better art.
See? I told you it was going
to be a 747 of doomy doom! I think it's safe to say that President
Skippy Henderson is no longer amongst the living... but he may be
amongst the unliving, if you know what I mean and I think you do.
If nothing else, you've got to hand it to the unnamed (and unseen) pilot
of AF1. Imagine... you're flying along, you've got a jumbo jet full of
politicians, media, and the living dead (but I repeat myself), pretty
much every airport in the world that's able to handle a 747 is probably
full of zombies, if you even have the fuel to get to any of them.
Sooner or later, those that wish to eat your brains, as well as zombies,
will be smashing at the door to the flight deck... and the one chance
you've got is to put your jumbo jet on the ground. That he was able to
do so at all is pretty amazing. That the plane is in relatively such
good shape is astonishing. I mean, the plane is still recognizable, the
wings are still attached (well, mostly), it's a safe guess that the
fuselage didn't break until the post-landing fire consumed much of the
plane's spine... for all intents and purposes, that thing is in one
piece. Even the engines are still attached. That's some mighty fine
flyin' right there... too bad the pilot and co-pilot are surely
zombiechow.
Yet this guy is still alive and kickin'. There ain't no justice in this
world. Not that the other people on the bus would agree with me...
...'cause he's got them believing that they're the Saviors of the World,
their pure spirits and bodies (particularly their bodies) will guide us
all out of the dark. He is honored just to be associated with them,
and their pure spirits (and bodies) will clean the taint of his adult
soul. He's not worthy, blah blah blah. Of course, they eat it up.
That he turns the bus into ORGYBUS during "rest time" surely has nothing
to do with it, heavens no.
Yes, I said ORGYBUS. This isHSotD we're talking about here, after all...

2
I only read a few of the early Clancy novels, and "Red Storm Rising" I remember particularly fondly... especially in light of the fact that Clancy gets way too heavily invested in the Jack Ryan mythos in a big hurry.

3
There are some nice pictures of a Murata-to (村田刀) here (scroll way down past the ads), and a bit of (awkwardly-translated) history here. From that, it sounds like the translator misheard the date (or else she misspoke), since they didn't start making them until ~1891.

(and then Japan switched to Western-style sabers until ~1925, before going back to this sort of design for the gunto used in WWII)

The seriousness you describe makes perfect sense to me: old warrior gives young warrior a battle-tested sword to take to war. Adding family into the mix makes it an even bigger deal; could there be an implication that he received the sword as a gift originally, from her father?

I wonder what the rationale would be for using nuclear weapons at a time like this. Does the US government (what's left of it) really think it could stop the spread of the zombie infection with nukes? You can't kill every zombie that way, unless you're willing to carpet-bomb entire continents, and any that aren't killed will just go on spreading the infection. You'd kill millions of human survivors, too. (Perhaps whoever is in charge thinks the situation is completely hopeless, and they do plan to carpet-bomb entire continents and kill every last person on the planet, zombified or not. Thermonuclear mercy-killing on a global scale, if you'll forgive my morbid speculation. Which is worse--being a zombie, or dying of radiation poisoning?)

One other question: did the producers of the show hire Anglophone voice actors and script writers for the brief scenes with American characters, or did they cheap out and have the Americans speaking Japanese?

Posted by: Peter the Not-so-Great at June 20, 2012 07:27 PM (KiYAY)

5
I didn't go into it during the writeup because who cares, really? But here's the gist: with the zombies swarming, President Skippy, at the urging of his already-bitten SecState, apparently approved National State of Emergency Tactical Regulation 666D, which called for a total emptying of the silos and subs at anybody who had nukes aimed at us. And North Korea, just to be sure. The idea seems to be "protection of the homeland from attack." The country is going to have a hard enough time recovering from the zombie apocalypse, having to do so with a nuclear-armed China staring us in the face is too much to bear. Of course, they've got their own zombie difficulties...

6
One possible reason for launching nukes: you believe that the zombie-plague was deliberately caused, you believe that you know who did it, and you believe that you know where they are holed up, waiting for the rest of the world's powers to collapse.

Your nation may or nay not survive at this point. If it does, in scattered pockets, it will take many years to clear out the walking dead, rebuild your economy, etc. But if the zombie apocalypse was planned, then whoever planned it is likely much better prepared than you were, and will recover much faster. To prevent their evil plan from succeeding (and unleashing the zombie-apocalypse must surely be considered evil), drastic measures are called for.

However, I expect that in this show the nukes were launched simply as an excuse for stripping off women's clothing for a thorough fallout decontamination sequence, in glorious slow-motion...

It looks like your response to Peter was posted while I was typing mine. As for the multiple nukes, that just means there's an even greater need for decontamination scenes. With multiple lather and rinse phases.

Maybe my editing of your first comment wasn't enough of a
hint, so here's what it comes down to. Please DO NOT refer to things that haven't happened or appeared
yet. If it hasn't been mentioned somewhere in the eleven writeups I've
done, there's probably a reason for that. Either I don't care (possible) or it's going to be important later (more likely).

I appreciate the comments, I really do. However, and perhaps this is
going to sound conceited, I don't need someone jiggling my elbow on this
stuff. Trust me, the person you were referring to was going to be
mentioned.

Alternatively, there are spoiler tags available for use. Speculation is welcome, flat-out reveals are not.

12
Sorry, I assumed things that definitely weren't in the anime were okay. Shidou's history is totally gone from his confrontation with Rei in this ep (he has a flashback while she's pointing the gun at him). The character I mentioned is in a later arc and could only show up in a hypothetical second season. (We might actually be thinking about different characters. It's not the one in episode 5.)

June 16, 2012

High School Of The Dead Ep10

So last time,
we pretty much had an epic episode, what with the Saeko backstory and
the Saeko swordplay and the Saeko BSOD and the Saeko gets splashed by
lots of water twice and the Saeko ginsuing zombies and the psycho Saeko
and the Saeko Saeko Saeko Saeko Saeko. Saeko. I guess what I'm saying
is that a Saekocentric episode is pretty much as awesome as this show
can get, more or less. So how in the world can the production staff
hope to follow up such marvelousness?
Why, with fanservice, of course. How else would HSotD deal
with an issue? And it throws it at us so quickly that I had to break
my introduction formatting (two or three pictures, followed by a Title
screen), otherwise The Pond would suddenly become NSFW on the front
page. We can't have that, no no no, this is a family blog. Mostly.
More or less. How many of you realized that I even followed my own
formatting rules? It's fine if you didn't, it's not like I advertise it
or anything, but these things ain't just thrown together on a wing and a
prayer, y'know. They're keenly thought out, finely detailed, nigh-on
exquisite gems of literary excess.

As nice as Saiko looks in that Kimono, it doesn't strike me as good disaster preparedness.

Well, you know the old saying, "Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking walking corpse!"

Posted by: Siergen at June 16, 2012 09:25 PM (PuIGa)

3
Having met Saya's parents, will our illustrious hero get conflicted wondering if she will grow up to look like mom - or dad?

Posted by: Frank at June 19, 2012 06:33 PM (pk0bF)

4
The sympathetic portrayal of ultranationalists was somewhat controversial in Japan. Imagine what a Hollywood remake would do with Don Takagi. Probably make him a monster like the Governor in The Walking Dead. (Hirano would be a Columbine-type psycho.)

Hirano's breakdown is in keeping with HSotD's theme, how people cope with a nightmarish situation like a zombie apocalypse. There's a discussion about this during the mall arc. Hirano is still a high school student with no combat experience. Playing the cool, calm zombie slayer is how he keeps sane in an an insane situation. Taking away his guns removes that role in addition to turning him back into an abused nothing in his mind.

June 03, 2012

High School Of The Dead Ep09

Some of you may remember that, last episode,
everybody was about to die when the fire brigade arrived, led by Saya's
mother. The Fellowship was saved, hurray! Except for Saeko and
Takashi.
Them, they got separated in one final suicidal attempt to distract the
zombie horde from their friends, which failed miserably, then when the
Cavalry came riding over the metaphorical hill, they couldn't be
rescued. Way to go, heroes! Now they've got to make their way across
zombie-filled territory without supplies or assistance, all in an
attempt to make it to Saya's house. Still, they're the two best melee
fighters in The Fellowship, they should have a decent chance if they're
careful.
...and then they jump off a railing. Takashi lands wrong, sprains an
ankle, and is eaten a few moments later when he can't outrun a zombie.
Saeko, having no idea where she needs to go now that her "native guide"
is dead, gets lost and is trapped in a dead-end alleyway. Her corpse
later reanimates and is casually shot in the face by Hirano, who doesn't
even realize who it once was. So she's got that going for her. Which
is nice.
Still... nimble little minx, isn't she?

4
This is actually taken from later in the manga, after the Takagi mansion arc. (The producers probably wanted to include the fanservice.)
Saeko was using the sword she got from Don Takagi, and the 8x8 was actually an Argo ATV also from Takagi. It was military, so it wasn't affected by the EMP like the Humvee was.

The translator said the line about "taking responsibility" referred to a Japanese belief that pregnancy can result from any sexual tension. (In the manga, Takashi and Saeko didn't seem to be on the verge of getting intimate; they just talked.)

6
It clears up what she meant by "take responsibility". The translator called it a sort of common joke in Japan, so Saeko is making a joke about Takashi grabbing her breast and he's going along with it. If they can be light-hearted about the subject, it's fairly certain they didn't get intimate the previous night.

Posted by: muon at July 20, 2012 01:06 AM (JXm2R)

7
Muon, that's great, it's a common joke in Japan. But "taking responsibility" means something completely different in English. So while the translator may have been exactly right in his translation, his localization sucks. So you'll forgive me if it seems that the official translation leaves it open.

And if you think that you can't be light-hearted after "getting intimate", then, well, you're probably doing it wrong.